Scots Crush the Competition at Westfield

WESTFIELD CENTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster men's golf team repeated as the champion of the Westfield Insurance Companies Invitational on Saturday afternoon, with the Fighting Scots' 574 leading the field by 49 strokes. With the victory, Wooster now has multiple tournament titles in three consecutive seasons, the longest stretch in program history.

Wooster's 282 on Saturday is just shy of the school record for lowest round in program history. While men's golf records at the College do have some gaps in them, it was determined back in the spring that the 1975 national championship team shot at worst a 281 at the Kent State University Tournament, or the score could have been a 279, as the players who played in events that season gave the appearance of a six-count-four format potentially being used in the regular season.

Sophomore Andrew Carey was the medalist with an even-par 140. The 70s marked a collegiate-best for this week's North Coast Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week. Carey's 140 improved a 36-hole collegiate-best by six strokes and it is tied for the lowest 36-hole by score in the program annals since 1990. It matched Krish Nayak's 4-under-par 140 from the 2022 Gatorade Collegiate. Carey was dynamite on Friday's back nine, playing it at 4-under-par. Carey rolled in consecutive birdies on the par-4, 426-yard 10th hole and the par-3, 177-yard 11th hole. Carey then went on to birdie all three par-5 holes on Westfield's back nine, ending with birdie six of the day on the par-5, 604-yard 18th hole. On Saturday, Carey went 1-under-par on the front nine with birdies on the par-4, 452-yard second hole and the par-4, 332-yard fifth hole. A third birdie found the bottom of the cup on the par-4, 342-yard seventh hole.

Junior Mark Towns matched a collegiate-best with a 70 on Saturday and the two-day 145 bettered a 36-hole collegiate best by three strokes. The tournament runner-up secured the collegiate-best-matching score with a birdie on the finishing hole. Earlier on the back nine, Towns rolled in a birdie on No. 10 and the junior also birdied the par-4, 342-yard seventh hole. On Friday, Towns played the back nine at 1-over-par, and the junior was one of three in the lineup to birdie the 10th hole that day.

First-year Max Shulman's 3-under-par mastery of Westfield's three back-nine par-5 holes propelled him to a collegiate-best 71. The last of those birdies came on the 604-yard 18th hole, which marked the first-year's fourth birdie of Saturday's back nine. Shulman had eight birdies for the tournament, five of which came in Saturday's round. He opened with a 75 and took third at 146.

Nayak's Saturday could not have started better, with a hole-out from about 150 yards on the par-4, 421-yard opening hole. Nayak moved back to 2-under-par with a birdie on the par-4, 365-yard sixth hole, and again was at 2-under-par for the round after a birdie dropped on the par-4, 408-yard 12th hole. Nayak finished at 71 on Saturday to score 147 for the tournament. The senior tied for fourth-place

Junior Gabe Guthrie also shot a 147 and tied for fourth, putting the program's entire lineup in the field's top four. Guthrie birdied two of the first three holes of the tournament and played Friday's back nine at even par, thanks to a birdie on No. 10. On Saturday, Guthrie was 1-over-par at the turn and logged 10 straight pars, starting on hole three.

Next, Wooster goes for its third tournament win of the fall at the NCAA Div. III Region 5 Showcase. Wooster's next tournament takes place September 21-22 at Manakiki Golf Course in Willoughby, Ohio.